As the third major domestic IDC provider to go public in the U.S. following GDS Holdings and 21Vianet Group, Chindata Group Holdings Ltd has experienced several capital market fluctuations since 2019 and now faces another turning point.
On the evening of September 10, Chindata Group announced that a consortium led by Shenzhen Dongyang Guang Industry Development Co., Ltd., including insurance investment institutions and local government funds, along with Bain Capital, formally reached a transaction agreement to acquire all of Chindata's China operations for 28 billion yuan in cash.
Moving forward, by integrating resources from both parties in liquid cooling materials, AIDC fields, and clean energy, Guangdong Hec Technology Holding Co.,Ltd. and Chindata will work together to build a digital infrastructure ecosystem that synergizes "green electricity - hardware technology - computing power - artificial intelligence - operations," jointly creating ultra-large-scale green intelligent computing power centers serving artificial intelligence.
**China's Largest Data Center Acquisition**
Bain Capital acquired Chindata in 2019 and facilitated its Nasdaq listing in 2020, then completed privatization and delisting through an agreement price in 2023. In 2025, Bain Capital completed its exit from Chindata with approximately $4 billion in consideration.
On September 10, Guangdong Hec Technology Holding Co.,Ltd. issued an announcement declaring that it would jointly increase capital in a joint venture company with related parties to acquire 100% equity of Chindata China. In this transaction, the target assets consist of 8 companies, including 7 wholly foreign-owned enterprises such as Wutong Digital Infrastructure Technology Co., Ltd., Hebei Sidage Data Technology Investment Co., Ltd., and Datong Qinshu Information Technology Co., Ltd.
Data shows that in 2024, Chindata China achieved operating revenue of 6.048 billion yuan and net profit of 1.309 billion yuan. In the first five months of 2025, operating revenue was 2.608 billion yuan with net profit of 745 million yuan. As of the end of May this year, Chindata China's total assets were 21.871 billion yuan, with net assets of 9.504 billion yuan.
Specifically, Guangdong Hec Technology's acquisition process of Chindata can be broken down into three stages. First, it partnered with controlling shareholder Shenzhen Dongyang Guang Industry and Yichang Dongshu No.1 Investment Co., Ltd. to sign a capital increase agreement, with Guangdong Hec Technology and Shenzhen Dongyang Guang Industry increasing capital by 3.5 billion yuan and 4 billion yuan respectively. After completion, both parties will hold 46.6654% and 53.3332% equity in Dongshu No.1 respectively.
Second, Dongshu No.1 will contribute the obtained 7.5 billion yuan to its wholly-owned subsidiary Shanghai Dongchuang Future Data Co., Ltd. Finally, Dongchuang Future will sign an acquisition loan contract with the banking consortium, further contributing the relevant loans and capital to its wholly-owned subsidiary Yichang Dongshu No.3 Investment Co., Ltd., which will serve as the final transaction entity to acquire 100% equity of Chindata China for 28 billion yuan.
During this period, Dongshu No.1 committed to further introduce other investors to raise funds for implementing this acquisition, ensuring that Guangdong Hec Technology's equity ratio in Dongshu No.1 does not exceed 30% upon completion of this acquisition.
After this transaction is completed, Guangdong Hec Technology becomes a participating shareholder of Dongshu No.1, indirectly holding 100% equity of Chindata China. This also represents the largest acquisition transaction in China's data center industry to date.
It's worth noting that the Shanghai Stock Exchange subsequently issued a regulatory letter to Guangdong Hec Technology. Zhang Yushuai, Chairman of Shenzhen Dongyang Guang Industry, stated in the announcement: "This acquisition is a key step for Guangdong Hec Technology Group to actively integrate into the national 'East Data, West Computing' strategic layout and serve the construction of a national integrated computing power network. After the acquisition is completed, we will prioritize ensuring business continuity and stability."
**Capitalizing on Computing Power Dividends?**
The surge in computing power demand is driving data centers toward high-density, high-efficiency development, with liquid cooling technology becoming a key solution for heat dissipation and energy consumption issues. Liquid cooling technology can reduce data center energy consumption by 30%-50% and support single-cabinet power density exceeding 750kW. Additionally, intelligent power systems are also crucial for reducing AI computing power energy consumption.
Guangdong Hec Technology's main businesses span six major sectors: electronic components, high-end aluminum foil, chemical new materials, energy materials, liquid cooling technology, and embodied intelligence. In the first half of 2025, Guangdong Hec Technology achieved total operating revenue exceeding 7.1 billion yuan and attributable net profit of 613 million yuan, representing year-over-year growth of 18.48% and 170.57% respectively.
By industry, electronic components achieved revenue of 1.81 billion yuan, up 13.91% year-over-year; high-end aluminum foil achieved revenue of 2.907 billion yuan, up 9.20%; chemical new materials achieved revenue of 1.968 billion yuan, up 47.57%; energy materials achieved revenue of 186 million yuan, down 4.97%.
Beyond the continued growth in its flagship electronic new materials business, Guangdong Hec Technology is deepening its involvement in the computing power sector. The announcement mentioned that in the first half of the year, Guangdong Hec Technology (holding 49% stake) established Shenzhen Zhiling with Zhongji Xuchuang to jointly develop the trillion-yuan data center liquid cooling market. On the other hand, it invested in Zhejiang Xinhan Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., which specializes in immersion cooling solutions, aiming for complementary synergy in solutions.
Furthermore, in July, Guangdong Hec Technology (holding 50% stake) established Dongyang Guang Xinzhoubang Electronic Materials with Xinzhoubang, also focusing on R&D and industrialization of liquid cooling heat dissipation materials and solutions.
With accelerated AI large model training and supercomputing center construction, data center single-cabinet power density has exceeded 30kW. Liquid cooling technology, with its ultra-high efficiency (PUE can be reduced to below 1.1) and high thermal density heat dissipation capabilities, has become essential for the "East Data, West Computing" project and intelligent computing center construction.
Market predictions suggest that China's data center liquid cooling market will exceed 70 billion yuan in 2025 and could reach 200 billion yuan by 2030.
Under the scenario where liquid cooling technology becomes essential for the computing power revolution, Chindata, as one of the leading enterprises in the IDC industry, occupies an important position in the Asia-Pacific market with its ultra-large-scale data centers. Additionally, as one of the third-party IDC operators with the largest operational scale in the "East Data, West Computing" project, Chindata has formed ultra-large-scale information technology infrastructure base clusters covering the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Zhongwei, and Qingyang in Northwest China.
Guangdong Hec Technology stated that through industrial synergy with Chindata, it can promote technological breakthroughs and market expansion in core business areas such as liquid cooling technology, electronic components, and intelligent robots.
Simultaneously, Guangdong Hec Technology also indicated that the large capital increase amount may have certain impacts on the company's production and operations. According to the 2025 interim report, as of the first half of 2025, Guangdong Hec Technology's monetary funds were 6.416 billion yuan, while short-term borrowings reached 9.11 billion yuan, with non-current liabilities due within one year at 2.066 billion yuan.
Total short-term debt reached 11.176 billion yuan, and combined with this acquisition transaction, the short-term debt repayment funding gap has further expanded.
Another noteworthy point is that as one of ByteDance's major IDC suppliers, Chindata's annual revenue from ByteDance during its 2020-2022 listing period accounted for 81.7%, 83.2%, and 86.3% of total revenue respectively. This clearly shows its high dependence on a single customer.
In terms of service model, Chindata focuses on providing full-stack ultra-large-scale data center models while also offering a small amount of data center retail and wholesale colocation services.
Analysts point out that R&D expenses for data centers are negligible for major tech companies, and various internet giants are gradually transitioning from being data center customers to building their own data centers. This means that for data center developers, customer self-building or demand reduction also represents a potential threat.
**Disclaimer**: This content and data are compiled from public information and do not constitute investment advice. Please verify before use.
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